The New Caledonian crow solves problems and can create and use tools—hallmarks of intelligence once thought to belong only to primates. (Photo by Vincent Musi, National Geographic Creative)

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Sound the Alarm

To avoid its many predators, the Gunnison's prairie dog has evolved alarm calls and escape behaviors specific to each predator. The calls even encode the predator's size, color, and speed. (Photo by Vincent Musi, National Geographic Creative)

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Aquatic Ace

The bottlenose dolphin is a master mimic with a long memory, a mind for vocabulary and syntax, and a knack for creative flair: Dolphins can dream up their own acrobatics routines on the fly. (Photo by Vincent Musi, National Geographic Creative)

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Monkey See, Monkey Do

Infant common marmosets learn what to eat by watching elders. Like apes, they can imitate others' actions—one of the most complex forms of learning. (Photo by Vincent Musi, National Geographic Creative)

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Take That, Lassie

Border collies are renowned for their intelligence—and this one, named Betsy, is no exception. She can put names to objects faster than a great ape and has a 340-word vocabulary. (Photo by Vincent Musi, National Geographic Creative)

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Batty for Nectar

Studies of the nectar-feeding bat Glossophaga soricina show that the bats remember up to 40 locations where food is depleted—helping them to decide where to seek the next meal. (Photo by Vincent Musi, National Geographic Creative)

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Takes One to Know One

Western scrub jays are brilliantly shifty birds: They will move a food cache if another jay sees them hide it, recalling their own penchants for stealing food. (Photo by Vincent Musi, National Geographic Creative)

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Doctor Octopus?

With sizable brains and dexterous arms, octopuses have been seen blocking their dens with rocks and shooting water at plastic-bottle targets—the first reported invertebrate play behavior. (Photo by Vincent Musi, National Geographic Creative)

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Count on a Lemur

Ring-tailed lemurs branched off from apes some 64 million years ago, but they have an apelike knack for numbers. The animals can repeat arbitrary sequences and can distinguish between quantities. (Photo by Vincent Musi, National Geographic Creative)

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From A to Zy

Azy, a 38-year-old orangutan at the Indianapolis Zoo, has a rich life of the mind: He can communicate with abstract symbols by typing on a keyboard. And in the wild, orangutans often construct tools. (Photo by Vincent Musi, National Geographic Creative)